MAKING FREEDOM REAL
by Alberto Rodriguez

The campaign to free the Puerto Rican Political Prisoners has grown remarkably in the last few years. Nevertheless there is much to do before we are free. Those who think that all the work necessary to free the prisoners has been done and now it's just a question of time and being patient are only fooling themselves and demonstrate a basic lack of understanding of political struggle . 1998 is a critical year for the campaign to release the Puerto Rican Political Prisoners and we must not allow the opportunities that it presents us to slip through our fingers.

Presently the Puerto Rican struggle for freedom has a historical opportunity to advance its cause for independence as well as the excarceration of the Puerto Rican Political Prisoners, and Prisoners of War. U.S. congressional action on Puerto Rico's political status along with the upcoming 100th anniversary of the U.S. military invasion of our island nation must become battlefields for freedom. It seems that some in the independence movement and in the campaign are allowing this historical moment to be lost.

There are many reasons for this. One of them is that the independence movement, which the campaign to free the prisoners is logically part of, lacks a basic viable strategy to confront U.S. authority and power in Puerto Rico. While the U.S. Congress, and soon the Senate, "debate" and develop legislation over the political status of Puerto Rico, the nationalist independence movement can only condemn with indignant and emotional rhetoric, and make threats which ring hollow and no one takes seriously.

Here in the U.S., Puerto Ricans have also been unable, unwilling or incapable of developing a viable strategy to confront power and convert theory to practice. In Chicago, Puerto Rican Congressman Luis Gutierrez is looked upon by the left as the champion of Puerto Rican independence and freedom for the prisoners, nevertheless independentistas will not vote for him. The same is true for Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez in New York who has worked diligently for the release of the prisoners and other progressive causes that are important to the Puerto Rican community. Independentistas not only do not vote, they are unwilling to study the U.S. political system, understand it and then confront it. Not wanting to seem tainted by "participating" in the U.S. political system, nationalist independentistas maintain electoral virginity as a badge of patriotic honor and ideological purity.  

As the 20th Century comes to an end with Puerto Rico still a colony we can achieve a concrete and real victory which can lay the basis for the future of our people's struggle for freedom. The freedom of the Puerto Rican Political Prisoners and POWs is that achievable goal. It is time for the campaign to take the independence movement to task about its rhetoric in support of the release of the prisoners. We in the campaign should demand that the independence movement place the issue of our release in the forefront of their political work. Lovely words of solidarity and praise are no longer acceptable.

THINGS TO DO

Soon the U.S. Senate will be dealing with the Young Bill, S472. Every single senator, 100 of them, should be contacted and informed about the colonial case of Puerto Rico and about the Puerto Rican Political Prisoners. Insufficient political work was done when the Congress held hearings, and the House floor "debated" the political status of Puerto Rico. The same should not be repeated with the Senate. The various organizations which comprise the freedom campaign have printed materials that you can obtain and mail to your Senator. You can write your own letters or use a sample letter if you wish. This is something real that you can do for the the freedom of the prisoners.